Weekly News Roundup

It’s a little rare these days for me to be able to post the Weekly News Roundup on Monday so I’m patting myself in the back. Lots of green goodies from last week by the way.

Verdezyne in ethanol deal

Industrial biotech company Verdezyne and Lallemand Ethanol Technology signed a deal to develop and commercialize genetically enhanced high-yield ethanol producing yeast. Verdezyne will use its metabolic engineering tools to rapidly introduce a proprietary pathway into an industrial yeast strain provided by Lallemand.

Purac starts lactide construction

CSM and its subsidiary Purac officially started construction of its new 75,000 tons/year lactide plant in Thailand. The plant will produce monomers for bioplastics such as polylactic acid (PLA). It will start up in the second half of 2011.

Nissan to build EV battery plant

Nissan North America selected W.G. Yates of Philadelphia, Miss., as the general contractor supporting the pre-construction services phase for Nissan’s new battery plant in Smyrna, Tenn. The battery plant will support the assembly of the Nissan LEAF, the first in a range of forthcoming Nissan electric vehicles (EVs) which will be built at the Smyrna plant in late 2012.

Hexion’s new epoxy plant for wind market

Hexion Specialty Chemicals opened its new specialty epoxy resin production facility in Esslingen, Germany. The plant produces specialty epoxy resins and bonding pastes used in the manufacture of large-dimension composite wind turbine blades for the wind energy market.

Cereplast in Nasdaq

Bioplastic company Cereplast received approval to list its common stock on the NASDAQ Capital Market. The company’s stock trading symbol will remain “CERP.” Cereplast expects its shares to start trading on the NASDAQ Capital Market this week.

Showa Shell Solar renamed

Japanese solar company Showa Shell Solar has renamed itself as Solar Frontier, the CIS (copper-indium-selenium) photovoltaic module manufacturer. The company is also investing in Germany and will open its first European office in Munich sometime this year.

And in ICIS News (requires subscription):

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced new restrictions on aluminum and magnesium phosphide pesticide products.

The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) downplayed news that Brazil has temporarily eliminated its 20% tariff on ethanol, saying Brazil’s trade policy is shaky and the country is unlikely to ever import ethanol because of the size of its market.

The EPA plans to add 16 chemicals to its Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) list of reportable chemicals, the first expansion of the program in over a decade.